Matthew's biggest mistake since his Council House letter
Matthew Parris is a very clever, interesting, honest, and usually very wise man, who is very perceptive most of the time and on the rare occasions when I violently disagree with him, his views are usually worth reading.
But as he himself sometimes make a joke of when booked as a speaker, his career includes some very unfortunate faux pas.
Up until this week, probably the worst was when he was working in the office of the then Leader of the Opposition, Margaret Thatcher, in the run up to the 1979 election. A council house tenant wrote to Maggie about Conservative policy towards housing, and he wrote a letter back about the subsidy provided to council housing which said what he actually thought, not what was tactful.
The letter was enough of a gift to Labour that they printed off thousands of copies and circulated it in some constituencies. That was my first election and I still remember it, and I recall my then MP cursing Matthew after he had people chasing after him while canvassing marginal areas shouting "Mrs Thatcher doesn't like Council House Tenants."
With slightly less excuse, (as Matthew is now a journalist and no longer a staffer for the Leader of the Conservative Party, or a Tory MP) Matthew has just for the second time in his career written something which is likely to be circulated by a party he would certainly not want to help, this time UKIP.
He has written an article in The Times about Clacton which is all too easy to present as writing off a large section of the struggling white working class, and residents of Clacton in particular, as unqualified people with tattoos, in wheelchairs or on crutches, whose opinions should be ignored.
Some of the responses to Matthew's article make it out to be more nasty than I think it was meant to be, but he does refer to the fact that 40% of the population have no qualifications, to the number with tattoos, to the fact that
"Only in Asmara after Eritrea’s bloody war have I encountered a greater proportion of citizens on crutches or in wheelchairs"
and he says
“I am not arguing that we should be careless of the needs of struggling people and places such as Clacton. But I am arguing — if I am honest — that we should be careless of their opinions.”
A representative example of the response to this can be found in the Telegraph here.
Matthew, correct me if my memory is playing tricks on me about a speech you made nearly twenty years ago, but when you next saw Maggie after you-know-what hit the fan following your council house letter, I seem to recall you saying that she looked at you in a deeply hurt way, and said something like "Matthew, Why, Why, Why?"
That's what a large part of the Conservative Party, and indeed especially those whose views about Europe are closest to your own, are thinking about your Clacton article.
And just in case anyone else is reading this who is in any doubt and is prepared to listen, Matthew's views in his Clacton article, do not represent me, and I'm convinced they don't represent those of David Cameron on anyone else in the Conservative party either.
But as he himself sometimes make a joke of when booked as a speaker, his career includes some very unfortunate faux pas.
Up until this week, probably the worst was when he was working in the office of the then Leader of the Opposition, Margaret Thatcher, in the run up to the 1979 election. A council house tenant wrote to Maggie about Conservative policy towards housing, and he wrote a letter back about the subsidy provided to council housing which said what he actually thought, not what was tactful.
The letter was enough of a gift to Labour that they printed off thousands of copies and circulated it in some constituencies. That was my first election and I still remember it, and I recall my then MP cursing Matthew after he had people chasing after him while canvassing marginal areas shouting "Mrs Thatcher doesn't like Council House Tenants."
With slightly less excuse, (as Matthew is now a journalist and no longer a staffer for the Leader of the Conservative Party, or a Tory MP) Matthew has just for the second time in his career written something which is likely to be circulated by a party he would certainly not want to help, this time UKIP.
He has written an article in The Times about Clacton which is all too easy to present as writing off a large section of the struggling white working class, and residents of Clacton in particular, as unqualified people with tattoos, in wheelchairs or on crutches, whose opinions should be ignored.
Some of the responses to Matthew's article make it out to be more nasty than I think it was meant to be, but he does refer to the fact that 40% of the population have no qualifications, to the number with tattoos, to the fact that
"Only in Asmara after Eritrea’s bloody war have I encountered a greater proportion of citizens on crutches or in wheelchairs"
and he says
“I am not arguing that we should be careless of the needs of struggling people and places such as Clacton. But I am arguing — if I am honest — that we should be careless of their opinions.”
A representative example of the response to this can be found in the Telegraph here.
Matthew, correct me if my memory is playing tricks on me about a speech you made nearly twenty years ago, but when you next saw Maggie after you-know-what hit the fan following your council house letter, I seem to recall you saying that she looked at you in a deeply hurt way, and said something like "Matthew, Why, Why, Why?"
That's what a large part of the Conservative Party, and indeed especially those whose views about Europe are closest to your own, are thinking about your Clacton article.
And just in case anyone else is reading this who is in any doubt and is prepared to listen, Matthew's views in his Clacton article, do not represent me, and I'm convinced they don't represent those of David Cameron on anyone else in the Conservative party either.
Comments
OK, I'll agree that the article about putting up piano wire to decapitate cyclists was another bad mistake. Irrespective of his minority status or politics.
He did apologise, saying that, quote,
"I offended many with my Christmas attack on cyclists.
"It was meant humorously but so many cyclists have taken it seriously that I plainly misjudged. I am sorry."
I was listening to a CD in the car this week, and one of the anthems ("Blessed be the God and Father") brought back happy memories of our youth - I seem to recall you singing one or two lines from the item concern with gusto and obvious pleasure.
My twins are also thirteen now: we took them to see some of the sights of London a couple of years back. They quite liked the Science Museum, and really liked the Natural History Museum, but the British Museum went straight past them.